Dutch Foreign Minister Frans
Timmermans (Labor) will visit Saudi Arabia in the near future in order to try
to prevent it from applying sanctions against the Netherlands in reaction to
PVV leader Geert Wilders distributing stickers of the Saudi flag saying that
Islam is a lie, Mohammed is a criminal, the Koran is poison. Timmermans will
already send a high official next week. Timmermans’ position toward Saudi
Arabia is far more positive than that of Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk
Asscher, also from Labor. In its 2013 report, Amnesty International criticized
the Netherlands heavily because it doesn’t make much effort for human rights
activists in Saudi Arabia. It said that when the Netherlands remained silent,
it seemed that it supports the repressive government rather than the human
rights activists. Timmermans says that the Netherlands prefers “quiet
diplomacy,” to which Amnesty answered that there is no proof at all that this
works.
www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2668/Buitenland/article/detail/3516843/2013/09/27/Nederland-zwijgt-over-Saudische-repressie.dhtml
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